Race starting gate for flat races



April 2, 1957 J. c. PURCELI.

RACE STARTING GATE FOR FLAT RACES 2 Sheets-Sheetl l Filed July 27,` 1955 00000000r0w0u0101000 0400Qdm00w0v0w0w u 0 0 00000000000000000 Q0 00 0 0 0 00N000N0N00N0w00000000000000 0.0.0 0000 0.0.06` 0 000000000N0N0N00000M00 1 1.1040101040( lOCOOMMCMO 1 4 1 I .Qvf

z f 000000 000000 000000000 00 000000000000000 .00000 00000000000000000000 00000 000 0 b00ONONONQNONOWNWN4NON0N0N0N0N0N0w04009 000ON0N0I0 ON4W04000000\ /Tff 45 INVENTOR. Jo /ln A Cg'Pu/'ce/.

April 2, 1957 Filed July 27, 1955 J. c. PURcELl.

RACE STARTING GATE FOR FLAT RAcEs 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 U Uf + #QP-MAI 156 160 dornel/S.

IN VEN TOR.

John c. Parce/l.

RACE STARTING GATE FOR FLAT RACES John C. Purcell, New York, N. Y., assignor to Puett Electrical Starting Gate Corporation, New York, N. Y., a corporation of California Application July 27, 1955, Serial No. 524,775

8 Claims. (Cl. 11915.5)

The present invention relates to an improvement in a race horse starting gate for at races as distinguished from harness races, and is an improvement on the invention shown and described in Puett et al. Reissue Patent 22,203.

The principal object of the invention is to increase the efciency of the locks used on the pairs of doors that close the stalls prior to the start of a race, and to insure the instantaneous opening of all of the pairs of doors when the race is started.

Another object is to provide Vseparate locking means for causing positive movement of each latching element of each door of all of the doors forming the opening means for the several stalls of the starting gate.

Other objects will appear hereinafter throughout the specication.

In the drawings:

Figure l is an isometric View of a pair of doors in closed position with parts of lthe supporting framework broken away;

Figure 2 is a partial layout of the wiring mechanism; and

Figure 3 is a front elevation, partly broken away, of a starting gate embodying the present invention.

The present invention provides separate solenoid actuated latching elements on each of the doors of each pair of doors. In other words, the present invention relates to a double lock solenoid mechanism whereby, in the opening of each pair of doors, two solenoids are actuated, one on each door of that pair.

This mechanism results in a more positive operation for the opening of the doors, because, should one solenoid ot one pair of doors fail to operate, due to coil weakness or other failure, the operation of the other solenoid will cause disengagement of the latching elements to permit opening of that pair of doors.

Referring to the drawings, A in Figure 2 indicates the starting gate as a whole. The starting gate is provided with an overhead structure 10, pairs of wheels 12, and a plurality of depending partitions 14.

Each pair of partitions provides a stall, and at the start of the race, the exit from this stall and all others is closed by pairs of closures or doors indicated by the numeral 16. These doors, as shown in Figure l, are pivoted at 18 on the partitions 14, and all of them are biased to open posi tion by springs or other means well known in this art and not shown herein.

Ordinarily, each pair of doors is held in locked position by a pair of latching elements, one for each door, and the movement of one of the latching elements under the energization or deenergization of a magnetic means will cause movement of the latching element connected with said magnetic means to thereby separate the latching elements, whereupon the bias spring means will instantly move each of the pairs of doors to open position. Such action is controlled by a starter who presses a button to either energize or deenergize the magnetic means mounted on one of the doors of each pair of doors to thereby uinitcd States Patent O 2,787,246 Patented Apr. 2, 19.57

smultaneously open all of the doors at the start of the race.

Referring particularly to Figure l, a supporting plate 20 may be secured by bolts, such as the bolts 46, to parts of the framework 44 of the right door, as viewed from the front of the starting gate. Mounted on this plate by a pivot 22 is a vertically pivoted primary latching element 24 having a curved lug 26 at one end thereof and a projection 28 at the opposite end thereof. Mounted on the plate 20 is a fixed support 30 for the expansible spring 32. The other end of the spring actuates the saddle 34 in an upward direction. Thesaddle 34 engages latching element 24 between its pivot 22 and the lug 26, so that the action of the spring 32 continuously biases latching element 24 in an upward direction, i. e., to an unlatched position.

Latching element 24 is held in latched position by the lever 36 which is provided with a notch 38 which prevents upward movement of the lug 26 as long as the projection 28 is in engagement with the notch 38. However, when the lever 36 is rotated on its pivot 40 in a clockwise direction as shown in dotted lines in Figure l, the projection will be freed from its notch 38.

The rotation of the lever may be accomplished in two ways, either by manual means, or by electrical means, both to be described as follows.

The lower end of the lever 36 is provided with an extension 42. This extension is engaged by the roller 48 of the bell crank lever 50 having a lower arm 52 and an upper arm 54, comprising spaced rings. As shown, the bell crank lever is pivoted at 56 on the plate 20. It will be noted that the lower end of the lever 36 extends between the rings of arm 54 so that the roller 48 engages theright vertical surface of the lever 36, and the top surface of the extension 42 of that lever, The bell crank lever is ro? tated on its pivot by a magnetic means 58 which preferably includes a pair of core windings 60 and 62 into which the armatures 64 and 66 extend, respectively. The ends of these armatures are pivotally connected at 68 and 70, respectively, to links 72 and 74, the otiset ends of which are pivotally connected at 76 and 78 to the lower arm 52 of the bell crank lever.

When coils 6l) and 62 are energized by the closing of the switch at the starters station, the armatures 64 and 66 are drawn into the core windings 60 and 62, thereby rocking the bell crank lever in a clockwise direction about pivot 56. This causes the roller 48 to engage the extension 42, thereby rocking lever 36, also in a clockwise direction, on its pivot 40. This action will release the projection 28 from notch 3S, thereby permit-ting spring 32 to rotate latching element 24 in a clockwise direction, causing disengagement of lug 26 on the second latching element.

The same action may be accomplished manually. Anchored to the bolt 80 is a contractible spring 82, whose opposite end is connected to manually operated lever 84 pivoted to plate 20 at 86. The spring 82 ordinarily maintains lever 84 in the position shown in full lines. When the lever 84 is moved manually to the position shown in dotted lines in lFigure l, i. e., in a counter-clockwise direction, its lower end engages the left vertical side of lever 36 and moves the lever to the dotted line position shown in this figure. This action also frees the projection 28 from the notch 38, thereby releasing the i'lrst latching element 24 from the second latching element, and it will be noted that this disengagement of the latching elements may take place regardless of whether or not there is any movement of the secondary latching element now `to be described.

The left door is provided with a supporting plate 88 that is held by suitable attaching means such as the bolts 90 to its door. Mounted on this plate on pivot 92 is the ice v Y 3 secondary latching element 94, having an upwardly eX- tending socket provided by the hooked end 96 which socket receives lug 26 when the parts are in latched position.

The opposite end of the secondary latching element is provided with a projection 98 which is adapted to engage in the notch 106 of lever 102, the, latter being pivotally mounted and freely swingable on pivot 1M. The bolt 106 forms a stop to limit the rotary movement of the latching element in a counter-clockwise direction about pivot 92. Lever 102 is provided with a depression 1&3 for engagement of the nose 110 of the short arm 112 of bell crank lever 114. This lever is pivoted to plate S8 by pivot bolt 116, and its longer arm 118 is pivotally connected at 120 and 122 to links 12/1 and 126. These links are pivoted at 218` and 13G to armatures 1E-2 and 134. These latter move within the coils 136 and 138 of the magnetic means 140.

The secondary latching element 94 is biased to open position, i. e., where its hooked end will move downwardly by a contractible spring 142, and lever 1192 is biased in a counter-clockwise direction by spring 11M.

With the parts shown in full lines as seen in Figure 1, energization of the magnetic means 14@ will move armatures 132 and 134 upwardly, thereby rotating bell crank lever 114 in a clockwise direction. As this lever rotates, its nose 110 forces lever 102 to rotate clockwise about its pivot 104. This action, which is against the pull of spring 144, will cause disengagement of the notch 100 from its projection 93, thereby permitting spring 142 to rotate the secondary latching element in a counterclockwise direction to thereby cause downward movement of its hooked end 96 and its disengagement from the lug 26. This action will take place regardless of whether there -is any movement of the primary latching element 24.

Therefore, it will be noted that each latching element, when actuated in a clockwise direction, will cause complete disengagement of the latching end of that element from the latching end of the other element. Therefore, each pair of doors may be freed from its latching elements by actuation of either of the magnetic means S or the magnetic means 140.

-As shown in Figures 2 and 3, there is a single actuating switch for all of the pairs of doors. This switch is indicated by the numeral 146. Separate circuits lead to all of the left doors and to the right doors of each pair of doors as shown in Figure 3. As shown in Figure 2, the magnetic means 58 and 140 for only two pairs of doors have been shown but it will be understood that the wires lat the upper left hand portion of the figure lead to the other pairs of magnetic means located on the doors of each of the stalls of the starting gate. Leading from magnetic means 58 are the wires 150 and 152, and leading from magnetic means 149 are the wires 154 and 156.

These wires are also connected to the batteries 158, 160, 162 and 164, which are connected to the relays 166, 168 and 170. Connected to the batteries and to the relays is a starter cord outlet box 172 and leading from the latter is the starter cord switch 17d. It is the closing of this switch 174 which causes the simultaneous energization of the magnetic means 58 and 141i to cause both latching elements to move away from eachother to thereby provide double protection against failure, thereby insuring that these latching elements will be disengaged even if one of the magnetic means or the lever elements connected thereto is not operating properly. In other words, should any one of the left or right hand doors of a pair of doors fail to operate for any cause whatever, the latching elements may be freed from each other by the actuation of the latching element of the other door.

It will be ,appreciated that large sums of money are bet on the horses which occupy the starting gate at the beginning of a race. Therefore, it is necessary that all of the horses be lsimultaneously freed from the starting gate when the starter presses the starter switch, as otherwise the entire race must be cancelled and the money bet by those who wager on the race -returned to them by the race track.

While the structure shown has been that of a starting gate using V-type doors, it will be appreciated that the pairs of latching elements may be used with straight doors, i. e., where the doors of each pair are parallel whenin closed or locked position. When using straight doors, it is only necessary to change the shape of one or both of the engaging ends of the latching elements. As an example, a pin may be substituted for the hooked end 96. The nose of the primary latching element may engage a pipe on the secondary latching element as seen in Figure l. Other obvious constructions may be substituted for the pin and lug construction of Figure 1.

The above description and drawings disclose a single embodiment of the invention, and specific language has been employed in describing the several gures. It will, nevertheless, be understood that no limitations of the scope of the invention are thereby contemplated, and that various alterations and modications may be made such as would occur to one skilled in the art to which the invention relates.

1 claim:

l. in a race starting gate having a pair of oppositely pivoted doors, inter-engaging latching means on said doors, each of said latching means being movable from an operative to an inoperative position, operating means associated with each latching means having control means connected thereto, either of said operating means when activated causing disengagement of said inter-engaging latching means.

2. Ina race starting gate having a pair of oppositely pivoted doors, inter-engaging latching means on said doors, each of said latching means being movable from an operative to an inoperative position, operating means associated with each latching means having control means connected thereto, either of said operating means when activated causing disengagement of said inter-engaging latching means, said inter-engaging latching means comprising a pair of pivoted engaging latch members which engage each other in latching positions, one mounted on each door ot said pair of doors.

3. In a race starting gate having a pair of oppositely pivoted doors, inter-engaging latching means on said doors, each of said latching means being movable from an operative to an inoperative position, operating means associated with each latching means having control means connected thereto, either of said operating means when activated causing disengagement of said inter-engaging latching means, said inter-engaging latching means comprising a pair of pivoted engaging latch members which engage each other in latching positions, one mounted on each door of said pair of doors, said control means comprising an electromagnetic means mounted on each door and operatively connected to the latching member on that door, whereby to control the movement of the latching member with which it is operatively connected.

4. The structure of claim 1, said operating means comprising spring means on each door for moving the latch on that door to a position of disengagement with the latch on the other door regardless of the position of the last mentioned latch, upon the operation of said cont-rol means.

5. The structure of claim 2, said operating means comprising spring means on each door for moving the latch on that door to a position of disengagement with the latch on the other door regardless of the position of the last mentioned latch, upon the operation of said control means.

6. The structure of claiinv 3, said operating means comprising spring means on each door for moving the latch on that door to a position of disengagement with the latch on the other door regardless of the position of the last mentioned latch, upon the operation of said control means.

7. In a race starting gate having a pair of oppositely pivoted doors, inter-engaging latching means on said doors, each of said latching means being movable from an operative to an inoperative position, operation means associated with each latching means having control means connected thereto, either of said operating means when activated causing disengagement of said inter-engaging latching means, said inter-engaging latching means comprising a pair of pivoted engaging latch members which engage each other in latching positions, one mounted on each door of said pair of doors, said control means comprising an electromagnetic means mounted on each door and operatively connected to the latching member on that door, whereby to control the movement of the latching member with which it is operatively connected, and electric circuit means connected to said electro-magnetic means.

8. The structure of claim 3, said operating means comprising spring means on each door for moving the latch on that door to a position of disengagement with the latch on the other door regardless of the position of the last mentioned latch, upon the operation of said control means, and electric circuit means connected to said electromagnetic means.

Bosio et al. Oct. 13, 1942 Whann et al Apr. 8, 1947 

